AT&T Will Allegedly Announce DirecTV Acquisition on May 18

AT&T will formally announce its acquisition of DirecTV this Sunday, according to sources speaking with BuzzFeed. (Maybe so it flies under the radar while everyone is watching playoff games?) These unnamed insiders claims “the deal is done,” though no details about the acquisition were revealed. DirecTV CEO Mike White has reportedly filled the company’s senior executives in on the terms, and will acknowledge it publicly tomorrow. Previous reports valued the deal at $50 billion.

AT&T already provides its own U-verse digital TV service, but it allegedly has fewer than six million subscribers. DirecTV, meanwhile, has about 20 million subscribers, making it the largest satellite operator in the U.S.—that would obviously boost AT&T’s reach significantly. In addition, insiders claim AT&T is also eyeing the deal because of DirecTV’s immense cash flow, which could help AT&T pursue new initiatives down the road—or maybe even another high profile acquisition.

The supposed deal was reportedly spurned by Verizon’s interest in Comcast, which still hasn’t been completed. AT&T’s deal has seemingly passed all the necessary regulation hurdles, though a termination deal has allegedly been agreed upon by AT&T and DirecTV should things fall through. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.